Media’s Influence January 18, 2008

Being a psychology major, it was interesting for me to see how Berger shows the effect of media on the mind. For example he uses a child exposed to graphic television programs and the effects that it has as the child grows. Going off on a tangent, this example made me question why even we, even as adults, have this weird inclination towards certain media which portray people in pain, emotionally and physically, because if you think about it, that’s basically all that horror movies and soap operas really are…people dying, drama, etc…and we actually take pleasure in watching it.

Berger also concludes that even though the majority of America believes in individualism, we are not self-made, but our personalities, beliefs, morals, etc are cultivated through society; media plays a huge role in our society thus ultimately influencing our individual behavior. I agree with this because although we are a part of society, society is also a part of us. Without it, we would be socially limited since society interprets what is “common sense” and how to define certain signs and signals we get everyday. We without media and society, we would live lesser lives in a way and we couldn’t really live the “American Dream” of the self-made man or woman since we wouldn’t know what was going on; society and media shape our consciousness.

Jenkins’ Conference January 16, 2008

What I got out of Henry Jenkins’ lecture is that the sources and type of media has basically taken a full circle. He talks about how democracy is more prominent in today’s media, such as YouTube, blogs, etc, just like in the past when different types of media was first emerging. As an example, Jenkins used the radio. When the radio was first becoming popular, basically anyone could broadcast. Between then and now, media became CNN type texts and less participatory. The media was put in less and less hands. Bigger corporations started buying up traditional media, the radio became much more centralized, and messages were provided by less sources. Now, it has gone back to how it was in the past, there is more convergence as participatory media has become more prevalent. For example, YouTube, even camera phones, have become a huge source of media. To start out his book, Jenkins talks about spoilers and how their communities work, using Survivor as an example. I thought the ways the producers threw off the spoilers was really sneaky/funny in a way. It is interesting to see how spoilers make up a community and keep it running by using their own knowledge/skills and add on to that of the other people in the community. While I was reading this, I thought, why can’t they use their “spoiling skills” on something a little more important such as debating a specific, important topic instead of wasting their time on a silly reality show? But I guess Jenkins is right in how in order to do that, you can’t really do anything else except for study the debate topic and become an expert at it, whereas there’s more freedom in spoiling a reality show, and for the more obvious reason: it’s just fun for them.

The Office January 14, 2008

Using The Office as an example to illustrate Berger’s focal points, the art work would be an episode of The Office, the audience would be the general public, artists would be writers, production staff directors, and actors, America and other countries such as the UK where The Office originated, and the medium would be television. Berger states that writers must always think about their audience. The producers of The Office were probably directing the show towards college-educated, young adults to older adults, and towards people who are amused by a goofy/awkward sense of humor. The show would have been written completely different for persons outside of this audience, for instance, children would not really understand it nor would they be interested. Berger also talks about the dilemma with where to place certain topics, but in the case of The Office, each episode is a topic in itself, and although there is a sense of chronological order in the episodes, it would not be required of one to start the show from season one, episode one in order to understand the rest of the episodes. Lastly, Berger uses music as an example of a person’s preference changing throughout his or her life. Using The Office as another example, what a viewer finds humorous may change as he or she gets older and even though I may like the show now, it doesn’t necessarily mean I will always and forever find the same type of thing humorous.

Hey January 9, 2008

My name is Sneha (snay-ha)…kind of a mouthful.. I am a sophomore and a psychology major at the moment..Some of my hobbies include dancing, drawing, and writing. I have one younger brother, Salil and he is 17. I love dogs; my dog is a mini american eskimo and her name is Lila. Ok I guess that’s about it. Bye.